Five things to know about the weekend tournament action

Monday

Mar 5, 2018 at 11:59 AMMar 5, 2018 at 12:11 PM

Most of the weekend was a washout for local high school sports. Catch up on everything you may have missed.

1. Postponements galore: Weather postponed all of Friday’s local tournament action and power outages left schools scrambling. Most of Saturday was a washout and even some teams, like the Norwell girls basketball team, had to resort to changing the site to get games in on Sunday.

2. Cinderella stories: To still be playing at this point in the season is a great accomplishment, but a pair of teams have surprised many that their seasons are still going.

The Braintree boys hockey team was plagued with ties this season, tallying six. That played a big role in the Wamps earning the No. 12 seed in the Division 1 South Sectionals. But now Braintree is peaking at the right time and has made the sectional semis after knocking off No. 5 seed Walpole and No. 4 seed Braintree. The Wamps are the lowest seed still playing in all of Division 1.

Last week, the Norwell girls hockey team picked up its first tournament win in program history. On Saturday, down 2-0 in the third period on the road at higher seeded Stoneham, it looked like that would be enough for Norwell. But the Clippers rallied with three goals from the Caseys, one from Messina and two from Ward, to pull out a 3-2 win and advance to the quarterfinals against Wellesley.

3. Favorites hang on: Survive and advance is a cliché mantra of every tournament team. But tournament favorites like the Hingham and Hanover boys basketball teams and the Rockland hockey team pushed it to the limit.

Hingham overcame an 11-point point deficit in the second half and held on despite John Lowther spending much of the day in foul trouble before finally fouling out. Gray Boyd scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Tyler Murphy netted 12 points.

Matt Delahunt saved Hanover’s season with a score off an offensive rebound that turned out to be the winning bucket with 28 seconds remaining in a 58-57 win over Foxboro. The defending Division 3 state champs were led by J.P. Landry, who scored 25 points.

The Rockland boys hockey team is in the middle of the best two-year run in program history, but it almost came to an end on Sunday. Rockland rallied from down 2-0 in the third period and tied the game with 26 seconds remaining after Coyle-Cassidy missed two chances at an empty net. In overtime, Dan McHugh went bar down to send the Bulldogs into the quarterfinals.

4. Top-seeds advance with ease: On Saturday, the Hanover boys hockey team left no drama in a 9-0 win over Abington. The Indians remain undefeated. A Rockland-Hanover sectional final is a game everyone wants to see after the Bulldogs defeated the Indians in a shoot out, 1-0, in last year’s quarterfinals.

The Norwell girls basketball team had to shake off some rust in a 44-28 win over Ursuline on Sunday. Annie Hilsinger led the way with 14 points. With Hilsinger, Kristi Vierra and Lexi Rothmann, there aren’t many opponents that can match up with the Clippers’ speed and athleticism. Unfortunately for Norwell, sectional semifinal opponent Archbishop Williams is one of the few that can. Kent State-bound point guard Asiah Dingle is one of the best players in the state.

Although the Braintree girls basketball team is the No. 2 seed in the Division 1 South Sectionals, every year the Wamps are the team opponents have their eyes on. Braintree has rolled with a 26-point win over Plymouth North and 23-point win over Walpole. Division 1 South has been entirely chalk, with the top seeds winning every game. Only the top four seed remain in the sectional semifinals.